Summary of the United States bishops’ reflection Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.

by USCCB | Source: www.usccb.org

This brief document is a summary of the
United States bishops’ reflectionForming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.It
complements the teaching of bishops in dioceses and states.

Our nation faces political challenges that demand urgent moral choices. We are a
nation at war, with all of its human costs; a country often divided by race and ethnicity; a nation
of immigrants struggling with immigration. We are an affluent society where too many live in
poverty; part of a global community confronting terrorism and facing urgent threats to our
environment; a culture built on families, where some now question the value of marriage and family
life. We pride ourselves on supporting human rights, but we fail even to protect the fundamental
right to life, especially for unborn children.

We
bishops seek to help Catholics form their consciences in accordance with the truth, so they can make
sound moral choices in addressing these challenges. We do not tell Catholics how to vote. The
responsibility to make political choices rests with each person and his or her properly formed
conscience.

Why Does the Church
Teach About Issues Affecting Public Policy?

The Church’s obligation to
participate in shaping the moral character of society is a requirement of our faith, a part of the
mission given to us by Jesus Christ. Faith helps us see more clearly the truth about human life and
dignity that we also understand through human reason. As people of both faith and reason, Catholics
are called to bring truth to political life and to practice Christ’s commandment to “love one
another” (Jn 13:34). According to Pope Benedict XVI, “charity must animate the entire lives of the
lay faithful and therefore also their political activity, lived as ‘social charity’” (Encyclical
Deus Caritas Est, no.29).

The United States Constitution protects
the right of individual believers and religious bodies to participate and speak out without
government interference, favoritism, or discrimination. Civil law should recognize and protect the
Church’s right and responsibility to participate in society without abandoning our central moral
convictions. Our nation’s tradition of pluralism is enhanced, not threatened, when religious groups
and people of faith bring their convictions into public life. The Catholic community brings to the
political dialogue a consistent moral framework and broad experience serving those in need.

Who in the Church Should Participate in
Political Life?

In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a
virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation. As Catholics, we should be guided
more by our moral convictions than by our attachment to a political party or interest group. In
today’s environment, Catholics may feel politically disenfranchised, sensing that no party and few
candidates fully share our comprehensive commitment to human life and dignity. Catholic lay women
and men need to act on the Church’s moral principles and become more involved: running for office,
working within political parties, and communicating concerns to elected officials. Even those who
cannot vote should raise their voices on matters that affect their lives and the common good.

How Does the Church Help Catholics to Address Political
and Social Questions?

A Well-Formed ConscienceThe
Church equips its members to address political questions by helping them develop well-formed
consciences. “Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral
quality of a concrete act. . . . [Every person] is obliged to follow faithfully what he [or she]
knows to be just and right” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.1778). We Catholics have a
lifelong obligation to form our consciences in accord with human reason, enlightened by the teaching
of Christ as it comes to us through the Church.

The Virtue of
PrudenceThe Church also encourages Catholics to develop the virtue of prudence, which
enables us “to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of
achieving it” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.1806). Prudence shapes and informs our
ability to deliberate over available alternatives, to determine what is most fitting to a specific
context, and to act. Prudence must be accompanied by courage which calls us to act. As Catholics
seek to advance the common good, we must carefully discern which public policies are morally sound.
A good end does not justify an immoral means. At times Catholics may choose different ways to
respond to social problems, but we cannot differ on our obligation to protect human life and dignity
and help build through moral means a more just and peaceful world.

Doing Good and Avoiding EvilThere are some things we must
never do, as individuals or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and
neighbor. These intrinsically evil acts must always be rejected and never supported. A preeminent
example is the intentional taking of human life through abortion. It is always morally wrong to
destroy innocent human beings. A legal system that allows the right to life to be violated on the
grounds of choice is fundamentally flawed.

Similarly, direct threats to
the dignity of human life such as euthanasia, human cloning, and destructive research on human
embryos are also intrinsically evil and must be opposed. Other assaults on human life and dignity,
such as genocide, torture, racism, and the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror or war, can
never be justified. Disrespect for any human life diminishes respect for all human life.

As Catholics we are not single-issue voters. A candidate’s position on a single
issue is not sufficient to guarantee a voter’s support. Yet a candidate’s position on a single issue
that involves an intrinsic evil, such as support for legal abortion or the promotion of racism, may
legitimately lead a voter to disqualify a candidate from receiving support.1

Opposition to intrinsically evil acts also prompts us to recognize our positive
duty to contribute to the common good and act in solidarity with those in need. Both opposing evil
and doing good are essential. As Pope John Paul II said, “the fact that only the negative
commandments oblige always and under all circumstances does not mean that in the moral life
prohibitions are more important than the obligation to do good indicated by the positive
commandment” (Encyclical Veritatis Splendor, no.52).

The basic right to life implies and is linked to other human rights to the goods
that every person needs to live and thrive—including food, shelter, health care, education, and
meaningful work. The use of the death penalty, hunger, lack of health care or housing, human
trafficking, the human and moral costs of war, and unjust immigration policies are some of the
serious moral issues that challenge our consciences and require us to act.

Making Moral ChoicesDifficult
political decisions require the exercise of a well-formed conscience aided by prudence. This
exercise of conscience begins with always opposing policies that violate human life or weaken its
protection. “Those who formulate law therefore have an obligation in conscience to work toward
correcting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against
the common good” (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops [USCCB], Catholics in Political
Life).

When morally flawed laws already exist, prudential judgment is
needed to determine how to do what is possible to restore justice—even if partially or
gradually—without ever abandoning a moral commitment to full protection for all human life from
conception to natural death (see Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, no.73).

Prudential judgment is also needed to determine the best way to promote
the common good in areas such as housing, health care, and immigration. When Church leaders make
judgments about how to apply Catholic teaching to specific policies, this may not carry the same
binding authority as universal moral principles but cannot be dismissed as one political opinion
among others. These moral applications should inform the consciences and guide the actions of
Catholics.

What Does the Church Say
About Catholic Social Teaching in the Public Square?—Seven Key Themes

A
consistent ethic of life should guide all Catholic engagement in political life. This Catholic ethic
neither treats all issues as morally equivalent nor reduces Catholic teaching to one or two issues.
It anchors the Catholic commitment to defend human life and other human rights, from conception
until natural death, in the fundamental obligation to respect the dignity of every human being as a
child of God.

Catholic
voters should use Catholic teaching to examine candidates’ positions on issues and should
consider candidates’ integrity, philosophy, and performance. It is important for all citizens “to
see beyond party politics, to analyze campaign rhetoric critically, and to choose their
political leaders according to principle, not party affiliation or mere self-interest” (USCCB,
Living the Gospel of Life, no.33). The following themes of Catholic social teaching provide a
moral framework for decisions in public life.2

The Right to Life and
the Dignity of the Human PersonHuman life is sacred. Direct attacks on innocent human
beings are never morally acceptable. Within our society, life is under direct attack from abortion,
euthanasia, human cloning, and destruction of human embryos for research. These intrinsic evils must
always be opposed. This teaching also compels us as Catholics to oppose genocide, torture, unjust
war, and the use of the death penalty, as well as to pursue peace and help overcome poverty, racism,
and other conditions that demean human life.

Call to Family,
Community, and ParticipationThe family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, is
the fundamental unit of society. This sanctuary for the creation and nurturing of children must not
be redefined, undermined, or neglected. Supporting families should be a priority for economic and
social policies. How our society is organized—in economics and politics, in law and public
policy—affects the well-being of individuals and of society. Every person and association has a
right and a duty to participate in shaping society to promote the well-being of individuals and the
common good.

Rights and ResponsibilitiesEvery human
being has a right to life, the fundamental right that makes all other rights possible. Each of us
has a right to religious freedom, which enables us to live and act in accord with our God-given
dignity, as well as a right to access to those things required for human decency— food and shelter,
education and employment, health care and housing. Corresponding to these rights are duties and
responsibilities— to one another, to our families, and to the larger society.

Option for the Poor and VulnerableWhile the common good
embraces all, those who are in greatest need deserve preferential concern. A moral test for society
is how we treat the weakest among us—the unborn, those dealing with disabilities or terminal
illness, the poor and marginalized.

Dignity of Work and the Rights
of WorkersThe economy must serve people, not the other way around. Economic justice
calls for decent work at fair, living wages, opportunities for legal status for immigrant workers,
and the opportunity for all people to work together for the common good through their work,
ownership, enterprise, investment, participation in unions, and other forms of economic activity.

SolidarityWe are one human family, whatever our
national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. Our Catholic commitment to
solidarity requires that we pursue justice, eliminate racism, end human trafficking, protect human
rights, seek peace, and avoid the use of force except as a necessary last resort.

Caring for God’s CreationCare for the earth is a duty of our
Catholic faith. We all are called to be careful stewards of God’s creation and to ensure a safe and
hospitable environment for vulnerable human beings now and in the future.

Conclusion

In light of
Catholic teaching, as bishops we vigorously repeat our call for a renewed politics that focuses on
moral principles, the defense of life, the needs of the weak, and the pursuit of the common good.
This kind of political participation reflects the social teaching of our Church and the best
traditions of our nation.

________________

Notes

1. For more on the moral challenge of voting, see Forming Consciences
for Faithful Citizenship, nos. 34-39. Visit www.faithfulcitizenship.org.

2. These themes are drawn from a rich tradition more fully described in the
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church from the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2005). For more
information on these seven themes, see www.faithfulcitizenship.org. For information on how we
bishops of the United States have applied Catholic social teaching to policy issues, see
www.faithfulcitizenship.org.

For a
wide range of educational and other resources to help share Faithful Citizenship, go to
www.faithfulcitizenship.org.

The Challenge of Forming Consciences for
Faithful Citizenship was developed by the chairmen, in consultation with the membership, of the
Committees on Domestic Policy, International Policy, Pro-Life Activities, Communications, Doctrine,
Education, and Migration of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). It was
approved for publication by the full body of bishops at its November 2007 General Meeting and has
been authorized for publication by the undersigned.

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